Fermat's theorem

Find the number of integer values of n > 1 n>1 that divide the number a 25 a a^{25}-a for all integers a a .

Note:This problem is part of practise tests prepared by my teacher.


The answer is 31.

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1 solution

Patrick Corn
Oct 17, 2014

Note that such a number cannot be divisible by the square of a prime p p , because it wouldn't divide p 25 p p^{25}-p . So we're only looking at primes and products of distinct primes.

Which primes divide a 25 a a^{25} - a for all a a ? If g g is a primitive root mod p p , then g 24 1 g^{24} \equiv 1 mod p p implies that ( p 1 ) 24 (p-1) | 24 . This happens for p = 2 , 3 , 5 , 7 , 13 p =2,3,5,7,13 . And Fermat's little theorem implies that all of those primes do divide a 25 a a^{25}-a for all a a .

Any product of these primes also has that property. There are 32 32 positive numbers that are products of those five distinct primes, and 31 \fbox{31} of them are > 1 > 1 .

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